Conversion of natural gas to liquid hydrocarbons (“Gas To Liquids” or “GTL” process) is based on a 3 step procedure consisting of: 1) synthesis gas production; 2) synthesis gas conversion by FT synthesis; and 3) upgrading of FT products (wax and naphtha/distillates) to final products.
The Fischer-Tropsch reaction for conversion of synthesis gas, a mixture of CO and hydrogen, possibly also containing essentially inert components like CO2, nitrogen and methane, is commercially operated over catalysts containing the active metals Fe or Co. Iron catalysts are best suited for synthesis gas with low H2/CO ratios (<1.2), e.g. from coal or other heavy hydrocarbon feedstock, where this ratio is considerably lower than the consumption ratio of the FT-reaction (2.0-2.1).
WO 2005/072866 discloses a method of producing an alumina-supported catalyst, which comprises the following steps: a first impregnation step in which an initial alumina support material is impregnated with a source of a 2-valent metal capable of forming a spinel compound with alumina; a first calcination step in which the impregnated alumina support material is calcined at a temperature of at least 550° C. to produce a modified alumina support material; a second impregnation step in which the modified alumina support material is impregnated with a source of catalytically active metal; and a second calcination step in which the impregnated modified support material is calcined at a temperature of at least 150° C. This is then followed by a reduction step to activate the cobalt.